Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Chambrey - Its a really nice place to be.

We left Torino, Italy to enter France over the Alps. The road took us 1200 metre and the mountains were high above us. The tunnel that cost us 45 euro took us under Mont Blanc and into France. At the time we thought OMG, the cost but when you consider the amazing human ingenuity to achieve such a great piece of engineering, why would you quibble about the cost?

The journey across the alps was hassle free and amazing to view although I think Sue saw more than me being the driver. The tunnel was 11.6 kms long. In 1999 there was an accident in the tunnel where 41 people perished in fire. I noted that today there is a precaution where cars must be 150m apart when in the tunnel.

The overnight stop was Chambery, a very pretty city with a high student population. After Italy, there seemed to be an appearance of freshness. The differences between Italy and France are noticeable from our point of view. Despite the young population in Chambery there was very little graffiti or senseless tagging yo that you see in Italy. The streets are tidy with little littering as well.
Chambery is a city of 90.000 and has the feel of Victoria's Bendigo, Ballarat and Tassie's Launceston with small city ambience.

Scenes from Chambery

We left Chambery around 11.00 after giving up getting a coffee and croissant after a 15 minute wait from a waitress with attitude and headed of to Tarare. Having travelled on so many autostrada and missing the countryside, we decided to program the GPS to "without tolls" - not a good idea....
Initially the journey for the first 20 kms was picturesque but further on it became quite industrial and then our GPS took us directly into Lyon rather than around it. We finally made Tarare mid afternoon feeling a little jaded but our energies were restored after being very surprised by our overnight accommodation. More tomorrow.